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Does Offshore Outsourcing Still Make Sense?

The enterprise trend to contract out contact-center operations overseas as a means of saving the high costs related to supporting an all-American staff may start to reverse, due in part to customer backlash and pending government oversight. More

 

Survey Sez: More C-Level Support Needed For Contact Centers

Are contact centers perceived by senior enterprise management as strategic assets to their businesses and, therefore, a high priority when it comes to investment in growth and capabilities upgrades?  More

 

Special Report: Contact-Center Market Growth Exceeds Forecasts

The worldwide market for basic contact-center equipment, software and seat licenses is running at more than $2.9B per year, based on a recent report by InfoTech (a division of Access Intelligence) on first-half 2006 contact center shipments. This does not include such services as installation, maintenance or managed support, nor does it include such advanced capabilities as IVR, speech recognition, integrated e-mail, Web collaboration, interactive chat, etc. However, It does include the underlying telecom infrastructure needed to support contact center operations. (InfoTech measures revenue as received by manufacturers from direct and indirect sales. It does not measure the total amount paid by end customers. The global average manufacturer revenue per seat, including add-ons, using the above methodology was $913.) More

 

Corn Mazes Are Great, But Not When They're In The Contact Center

By Tom Chamberlain

When they are properly designed, corn mazes symbolize everything good that fall has to offer. They provide hours of wholesome fun in the crisp, outdoor air, and they give families the opportunity to bond as they work together to navigate through acres upon acres of 10-foot-high corn stalks. Corn mazes are fun largely because they daze and confuse and, in doing so, fully meet the expectations of their visitors.

To the contrary, corn-maze-like construction on self-service applications is not quite as much fun to consumers. In fact, almost nothing is more frustrating to customers than listening to laundry lists of options, navigating through a variety of menus and then failing to receive the information they need to complete a transaction. But there is a way to easily navigate through this challenging maze. More

 

The Case For Healthcare Call-Center Outsourcing

By Victor C. Otley III

Medical contact centers, when used strategically throughout a healthcare organization, are a cost-effective way to increase patient loyalty, drive revenue and profitability, and attract customers from hospitals' target markets. Yet few healthcare facilities have the skills and tools required to maximize the value of their internally operated contact centers, and most are reluctant to invest in maintaining infrastructure seen as outside the core business of delivering excellent healthcare.

Hiring staff, managing operations, and continually updating computer infrastructure is expensive and time consuming. Managing the human resources piece is equally challenging, particularly with the nationwide nursing shortage reaching near-crisis levels. More